Posted on 05/02/2007 7:58:55 PM PDT by Howdy there
A freight train carrying segments of the space shuttle's solid rocket boosters derailed Wednesday after a recently repaired bridge collapsed over boggy ground, authorities said. Six people aboard the train were reported injured, one critically.
Snip... NASA said it was not immediately known whether the equipment was damaged. But space agency spokesman Allard Beutel in Washington said the accident should not delay any shuttle launches.
"It appears when the train got onto the trestle, the trestle just gave way and sank to the ground," said Mike Rudolphi, an official with the boosters' manufacturer who went to the wreck site. "It's going to be a challenge to get it out of there."
Eight booster segments were on the train, which carried only the shuttle shipment, Rudolphi said. One booster overturned, along with two locomotives and a car carrying six attendants, who were injured.
It was the second time in less than a week that the train jumped the tracks while carrying the booster segments across the country from the manufacturer, ATK Launch Systems Group of Promontory, Utah, to Cape Canaveral, Fla., Herring said.
Last Friday, two axles on one car came off the tracks for unknown reasons about 60 miles west of Salina, Kan., while the train was traveling at less than 20 mph, Herring said. The train was back on the tracks after several hours, the spokesman said.
Meridian and Bigbee of Meridian, Miss., was hauling the equipment and owns the trestle, said Mike Williams, a spokesman for Bigbee parent Genesee & Wyoming Inc. of Greenwich, Conn. The bridge was closed for repairs Sunday night and reopened Wednesday morning, he said.
He said that he was unsure of the nature of the repairs but that the bridge was inspected.
NASA officials said two locomotives, a train car behind them, and one car with a shuttle booster overturned. The fuel in the rocket, aluminum perchlorate, has the consistency of a rubber eraser and there was no danger of it igniting, according to NASA.
A spokesman for the manufacturer, Bryce Hallowell, said the train was taking the same route to the Kennedy Space Center that has been used for 30 years or more. The train trip can take more than a week.
The accident was the latest in a run of bad luck for the space agency....
We need to move NASA facilities to where transportation routes will be on more solid ground. NASA administrators and employees would probably like better scenery and cooler weather, too. ;-)
That’s a funny way to park a train.
Hawaii?
whoops
Mud season late there this year? Here in Vermont the ground is finally starting to recover from a very late thaw.
LOL! ...many NASA people would love that, I’m sure!
Nope, it has actually been very dry here.
Oh, they call it “bad luck” now, do they?
It is odd how the space vehicles of the 21st century will rely heavily on infrastructure laid down in the 19th. Most of the components of the Ares vehicles will be shuttle derived. The Ares I boosters is basically a stretched SRB.
Houston! We have a problem!
Yeah, unless, of course, there was a fire when the train wrecked.
I think the Astronauts should be told.
Another case of “Atlas Shrugged”?
The solid rocket fuel is an oxidizer which is usually mixed with hydrazine to achieve burn. The amterial in the wreck would have had to come in contact with an organi such as fuels and then still need a kickstart to light off.
NASA facilities are located where they are because it affects how we get into space. There was a special TV show on rockets and how NASA was situated. I’ll look for the specifics and post them here for the geeks... ;-)
Great short read about the an explosion at a rocket fuel plant and a short video of the explosion.
http://www.chemaxx.com/explosion1.htm
I remember that. I think in was near Henderson. It was the only plant making the stuff. Morton-Thiokol.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.